Can't Stop What You Can't Control
by WinterJade
Summary: Devised at midnight under forced conditions, a group of seemingly unconnected one shots that actually do connect. Abandoned. The author has lost interest in this fandom, and will probably never return.
1. Get Going

Oh... hi... -looks around terrified- well.. I got out of my JackXElizabeth slump.. which I explained in an apology thingy that I will erase as soon as I get up the next chapter for that story. However, I'm still inexplicably stuck with my very slow progressing fanfic. Whaat? Geez..okay I'm getting to that! Just stop hitting me! -sigh- Last night at midnight Elizabeth and Jack very rudely woke me up and pushed me over the side of my bed, and my bed doesn't have a parking lot of space on either side. Those two weren't too happy with the position I left them in. Of course, when my Council calls, I must answer, no matter how much I hate taking that oath right now. So here you go.

Disclaimer: I like to pretend I own them, but the more plausible scenario is that they own me.

* * *

If you looked in the blue, paradise-like Caribbean ocean, you would find Jack Sparrow, leaning on the helm and sighing well into his third hour of helm duty.

_It feels like it's been six hours,_ Jack thought sourly. Time had been going twice as slow lately, he supposed since Beckett was finished. He hadn't noticed when Father Time had first started dragging his feet, but it was getting to be unbearable. Jack's mind slowly wandered towards that day, trying to figure out for himself when this had begun. I_t was definitely slow parting ways and sailing towards the sun,_ he mused. _But I thought that was because of bad winds? Okay, thinking back farther..._

_..leaving those two at the island. _

_Bugger, didn't want to think about that... but time **was** doing funny things at that point, because when Lizzie hugged me it seemed like it was forever, but then it was over too fast.. and then leaving was way too quick..and I remember asking myself when the eunuch had learned to French if he was English... Bugger! Didn't want to dwell on that either, especially since I didn't want him kissing her... _

Jack cursed silently to himself and let out a soft groan._ I was only being protective because_ _**I**_ _had kissed her,_ he repeated in a silent mantra.

It wasn't working. Strangely undaunted, the stubborn pirate continued turning the clock backwards. Anything was better than this hollow-headed turtle-time. _Maybe going back to the immediate aftermath will help... Lizzie saying a short goodbye on the boat. I really don't want to relive that... but right afterwards when she was leaving it seemed slow...like girls-running-slow-motion time.._

A lantern above his head gave a slight flicker as Jack's face twisted into a 'Eureka' realization moment.

_But!_ He said in his head, starting to ramble_, it wasn't slow before that, and every time after it was either too fast or too slow! _

Jack was so irrationally proud of himself that he couldn't help the slight lift in his lips and the almost manic glint in his dark eyes. But the revelation still didn't solve his problem. Time still felt slow, and Lizzie still wasn't on the Black Pearl. Clenching his jaw in a determined line, he began spinning the ship at a treacherous degree. Time was going to run normally for him whether it wanted to – or not. He preferred not. It was more fun that way.

* * *

-wipes forehead- I didn't have this prewritten like I did for some of the others, so it was hard. After the mantra part, it sort of went downhill. I'm also extremely ashamed of myself. I pride myself on having chapters that are much longer than this.

Going insane,

Jade


	2. Brown Eyes

This one's set just after Jack dies, before Tia Dalma's place...I own nothing. This has been edited, both the story and notice.

Romantic stories have been told through the ages about blue eyes or green. Even hazel has been featured in those leather bound romances she loves so much. But rarely brown. Elizabeth briefly wonders why, when brown eyes drive her to insanity.

When that intense look gives her goosebumps and a stammering voice, turns her steady legs to jelly.

When she can't even blink when those eyes catch her own.

Her shame is burning a hole through her stomach, blackened at the edges by guilt, on fire from remorse and fiercely smoldering with sorrow. The eyes her traitorous mind won't stop turning to are not the warm, loving ones now staring into hers.

They are deeper, mischevious, and promising adventure longer than the oceans and found farther than her highest dream.

Staring orbs that seem to reach as far as her soul, and see through every lie she is telling herself now.

A look of thrill and wild excitement.

Clueless confusion and a pouting glance.

Even that glare of blazing anger holds her attention like nothing else in this world or the next.

Not piercing blue or glowing green, but a gaze of dark chocolate is her torment, the one string that will unravel her, her and her picturesque life.

She's crying, but she ignores it. She allows this single moment. The mask that she will have to wear for her betrothed slips for just this second, and the woman imagines a life with those eyes, an exciting one. A daring vivaciousness that will never come to pass.

It was all fantasy and memory, whimsical thoughts of what could and should have been but was not. There was no hope. There was no redemption or mind games. No glances to set her on fire or pools of brown to lose herself in. Not anymore. Those eyes were gone.

Forever.

Short notice. I'm abandoning this, officially. I've kind of been ignoring several stories for years and years, but now I'm doing a sweep and I felt like you guys should know about it. I am no longer interested in this fandom. I will occasionally read in it, if I happen to catch DMC or AWE on TV, but I will never again write in this. I still believe Jack should be with Elizabeth and not what's-her-face from the fourth movie, but really I'm simply not interested anymore.

I direct you all to a much better Jack/Lizzie fic, called Rum and Persuasion (MRated). I'm not sure of the author, but it's on this site. Y'all know how to use the search engine.

I will mark this...mess... as complete, but it's honestly not. It's just retired.

I acknowledge the terrible writing as part of my awkward growing period, and deeply aplogize, even now, for the brevity of the existing chapters. It was supposed to be a long series of drabbles, and the sheer amount I was planning would hopefully disguise the fact that each chapter was too short to rightfully be allowed on this site. Did not work, obviously.

~WinterJade.

P.S. I apologize for the situation with my reviews. It seems I've been caught by a spammer bug, heh.


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